Facebook announces purchase of WhatsApp for $16 billion

Facebook said in a press release that the social network is buying the instant messaging service for $16 billion, of which $12 billion will be paid in shares and $4 billion in cash.WhatsApp confirmed the transaction on its blog and Mark Zuckerberg did the same with a post on his Facebook profile.According a note on the WhatsApp company blog, the deal consists of a partnership with Facebook that will allow the creators of the service to continue “building a communications service that’s as fast, affordable and personal as possible.” At the end of the transaction, WhatsApp will become a subsidiary of Facebook.It’s obvious that one of the main doubts remaining is what will happen to the philosophy of zero advertising that WhatsApp has preached so intensely and that is undoubtedly part of its appeal to the public. Its cofounder insists that this won’t change, and that the service itself will “remain autonomous and operate independently.”Facebook is a company that has increased its ad revenues 30 times between 2012 and 2013. In the last three months of last year alone, it billed close to $2.6 billion for digital advertising.